The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making bags from flexible sheet material. In a known method of this type, a panel of flexible sheet material is folded between a shaping tube and a folding box into a tubular structure of rectangular cross section and the two longitudinal edges of the panel are overlapped and connected together by a longitudinal seam. Then, a bottom is formed at the front end of the tubular structure and an end piece of that structure having such a bottom is severed from the remainder of the tubular structure to constitute a bag which is open at the top.
Apparatus which automatically carries out this process is disclosed in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,509 and corresponding Swiss Pat. No. 542,701.
One drawback of this known method is that the bags must be made from a weldable or heat sealable sheet material. Such materials, however, are considerably more expensive than ordinary paper or the like.